All posts tagged Blade Runner

PRETORIA–Oscar Pistorius stood in the middle of the courtroom holding back tears. Behind him to his right, family members sat with their arms wrapped around each other — every now and then breaking into impromptu prayer sessions. To his back left, the best friends of his slain girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, sat teary eyed.

Neither side spoke to one another. Although physically separated by only a foot-wide aisle, the distance between the two camps appeared much wider.

Mr. Pistorius, nicknamed the “Blade Runner” for his carbon fiber prosthesis, will return to court next March (2014) to face the charge of premeditated murder for the killing of Ms. Steenkamp. On Monday, the state submitted its indictment sheet—but he wasn’t formally charged.

Sci-fi author William Gibson recently talked to Speakeasy about his new collection of essays, and we took the opportunity to ask his thoughts on the controversial Internet-antipiracy bill, SOPA.

“I’m not by any means an enemy of intellectual property, and in fact keep a roof over my head because the concept exists,” says Gibson, the author of “Neuromancer,” in which he coined the term, “cyberspace.” “But I think that SOPA as it stands now, or as it stood before they paused to think about it, is extremely ill thought out, and a basically crazily Draconian piece of legislation.”

The Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas. Read More »

Now that we know film director Ridley Scott plans to helm a “Blade Runner” sequel, let’s turn our attention to his just-completed film, “Prometheus,” which marks his return to science fiction after nearly three decades. (He’s also an executive producer on a new television series, “Prophets of Science Fiction,” on the Science Channel.)

The highly anticipated “Prometheus,” filmed in 3-D and starring Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron, is scheduled to be released by News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox in June 2012. Scott and the cast members have been pretty tight-lipped about the high-profile project, but in an interview with Speakeasy, Scott shared some new details about “Prometheus”:

– The central metaphor of “Prometheus” is about a “higher being” (Scott’s words) who challenges the gods, and the gods don’t want to give him fire. “Fire is our first form of technology,” Scott says, and so by taking fire, the higher being is punished “in perpetuity in a horrible fashion.” Much like the story of the mythological god, Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and for his actions was bound to a rock with an eagle eternally devouring his liver. (Let’s hope things turn out differently for our higher being…) Read More »

Film director Ridley Scott plans to make a follow-up to his groundbreaking 1982 classic, “Blade Runner.”

In an interview with Speakeasy, Scott said he is on board to direct a “Blade Runner” follow-up and has been interviewing writers who can help him with the screenplay. Scott says the new project is “liable to be a sequel.”

Scott, 74 years old, recently finished shooting the sci-fi movie “Prometheus” and is an executive producer of a new TV series on Discovery Communications Inc.’s Science Channel, “Prophets of Science Fiction.” Read More »

Ridley Scott will produce and direct a follow-up to his science fiction film, “Blade Runner.” The filmmakers have not announced whether the project with be a prequel or a sequel to the 1982 film which starred Harrison Ford and Daryl Hannah.

Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” “Blade Runner” was nominated for two Academy Awards and follows Richard Deckard in the year 2019 as he hunts “replicants” that are running loose illegally in a dystopian Los Angeles. Replicants are nearly indistinguishable from humans.

Production company Alcon Entertainment acquired rights to the “Blade Runner” property in March. The company’s CEO’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will produce alongside Scott. Read More »

The Terrafugia Transition flying car has generated buzz recently after completing flight tests and getting a favorable ruling from the Federal Aviation Administration. But the Transition is just the latest manifestation of a long-running fantasy. Almost as long as there have been automobiles, drivers have wished their cars could fly. Whether it was to avoid a traffic jam or just get to a destination faster, the idea of combining cars and planes has always been appealing. But the two modes of transport don’t necessarily blend well.

After the jump, flying car designs that span almost 100 years. Read More »

A report in today’s Wall Street Journal details the fact that family members of science fiction author Philip K. Dick are complaining that Google’s new Nexus One phone infringes on the writer’s sci-fi novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” a work that was turned into the 1982 Harrison Ford film “Blade Runner.”

In the book, a bounty hunter named Rick Deckard is charged with a mission to eliminate rogue “Nexus-6″ model androids. Isa Dick Hackett, a daughter of Dick and the chief executive of Electric Shepherd Productions, an arm of the Dick estate devoted to adapting the late author’s writings, told the Journal’s Nathan Koppel that the connections between the book and the phone are highlighted by the fact that the Nexus One runs on Google’s Android operating system.

For those who haven’t read the book, Nexus-6 models are portrayed as having brain power that rivals that of humans. One page reads: “The Nexus-6 android types, Rick reflected, surpassed several classes of human specials in terms of intelligence. In other words, androids equipped with the new Nexus-6 brain unit had from a sort of rough, pragmatic, no-nonsense standpoint evolved beyond a major–but inferior–segment of mankind. For better or worse. The servant had in some cases become more adroit than its master.”

More, and a clip from the movie “Blade Runner,” after the jump. Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.